What do Lehigh County Republicans think of a new union contract at Cedarbrook?

Lehigh County commissioners Wednesday lambasted the county administration's plan for turning around Cedarbrook nursing home as weak and undeveloped.

The criticism came as commissioners were asked to approve a new contract with the nursing home's union employees and millions of dollars in physical improvements to the home as part of the county's capital plan.

Commissioners have heightened their scrutiny of the county-owned nursing home since its subsidy from county coffers spiked last fall. From 2011 to 2013, Lehigh County's financial contributions to Cedarbrook rose from $535,576 to $6.3 million, a 1,090 percent increase.

The board unanimously approved the contract, which raises pay 1.5 percent retroactively in 2014, 2 percent in 2015 and 2.5 percent in 2016 for 523 workers, despite some concerns about how it fit into the bigger financial picture. In exchange, employees agreed to cut the number of sick days they're eligible for from 20 to six and to contribute more toward their health care costs.

"Last year with Cedarbrook needing the $6 million infusion from taxpayers, my concern is how are we going to close that gap," Commissioner Mike Schware said. "I don't think it's acceptable to continue to pump taxpayer money into it to the tune we did last year."

On its own, the contract is reasonable, Commissioner Vic Mazziotti said. "The problem I have with it is it's one piece of a much bigger puzzle, and that puzzle is how are we going to finance Cedarbrook."

The administration's plan so far seems weak, Mazziotti said during the contract discussion and then again Wednesday night before voting with the six other Republicans on the board to scratch funding for capital improvements at the nursing home.

County Executive Tom Muller requested that funding in response to a consultant's report that the South Whitehall Township facility's outdated layout was undermining its ability to attract residents.

Mazziotti and Schware, who proposed the cut, said that strategy was too undeveloped to hold a spot on the capital plan, and funding could always be restored later.

Commissioner David Jones said the board should be developing its own plan "rather than wait for [the administration] to bring us something that I guarantee we're going to pick apart like a buzzard on a carcass."

Muller said Cedarbrook will be a focus of his budget message as he introduces the 2015 spending plan later this month.

"If you're of a mind-set that we shouldn't be in the [nursing home] business, then they're going to be unhappy," Muller said outside of the meeting, "because we're going to be in the business."